1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for generating motion image data suitable for a parallax image printed matter and a method thereof, a printed matter production apparatus for printing a parallax image printed matter using motion image data captured in an ordinarily way and a method thereof, a printed matter production system as well as a communication terminal device and a printing device constituting this printed matter production system.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, due to developments of various types of printing systems, which allow to image-capture and print not only a still image but also motion images and parallax images, a printed matter in which a perceived image changes depending on its viewing direction/angle may be produced. Hereinafter, in the following description of the present invention, this printed matter in which the perceived image would change in accordance with the viewing direction will be referred to as a parallax image printed matter or simply a printed matter according to the present invention.
As examples of business operations currently in service utilizing this parallax image printed matter, there are services for producing a parallax image photograph as a printed matter using the lenticular technology, which include, for example,
“Torikiri Konica 3D (Trade Name)” available with a three-eyes-lens equipped film and its print service from Konika Corp.;
“Kodak Snap Kids 3D (Trade Name)” available with a three-eyes-lens equipped film and it print service from Kodak Corp.;
“MIP (Motion Image Print) card (Trade Name)” which synthesizes 6 images, and “Ugoitaro (Trade Name) device for producing this card, both developed by Matsushita Denki Sangyo K. K.;
“Chikyuya K. K.'s Internet Service” for accepting orders for the card produced by the above-mentioned “Ugoitaro” on the internet;
“Motion image card auto vendor” available from Matsushita Denki Sangyo K. K. as an amusement business equipment on order sales, for providing a card containing plural continuous photographs of an object that can be observed as if moving when viewed from a different angle.
Further, as a similar system for producing the parallax image printed matter, there are such ones that produce a printed matter utilizing the holographic technology, which include, for example, “Instant holographic portrait printing system” by Akira Shirakura, Nobuhiro Kihara and Shigeyuki Baba, Proceeding of SPIE, Vol. 3293, pp. 246-253, January 1998; “Fast holographic portrait printing system” by Kihara, Shirakura, Baba, the 3-D Imaging Conference 1998, July 1998, which describes a printing system capable of rendering parallax only in the horizontal direction. In addition to the above, there are other systems for producing a printed matter capable of rendering parallax in both of the horizontal and vertical directions such as “Holographic 3-D printer using the Lipan holographic stereogram proposed” by Yamaguchi, Honda and Ohyama at the 20th Imaging Engineering Conference, December, 1989, and “Holographic 3-D printer for high density recording” by Endo, Yamaguchi, Honda, Ohyama, the 23rd Imaging Engineering Conference, December, 1992.
In those systems described above for producing parallax images as a printed matter, the printed matter is produced by displaying motion images and/or parallax images, which are of an object to be printed, as if a motion picture, by taking pictures of an object so as to have parallax when viewed from a different viewing point with a dedicated camera, or by generating images having parallax as viewed from a different viewing point by computer graphics (hereinafter, referred to as CG).
For example, in the case an object is to be imaged with a camera as shown in FIGS. 22(A) and 22(B), conventionally, dedicated equipments and facilities such as a rail 100 having a straight or curved tracks for translation motion of a camera C (FIG. 22(A)), or a camera stage 110 for rotating the camera C mounted thereon (FIG. 22(B)) are required. In this case, the camera is one dedicated for picturing parallax images. Alternatively, there may be an arrangement in which the camera itself is not rotated and an object to be imaged is rotated on a rotating stage. In such an arrangement, a dedicated facility of this rotating stage is required.
In taking of pictures using the above-mentioned rails and the camera stage, its translation motion speed or rotation speed is specified as a preset speed amount or constant speed to be determined as a time variable when taking pictures of the object, and this speed amount is utilized as a parameter for use in an image processing for converting the pictured image into an image suitable for a parallax image printed matter.
Still further, also in the case where the plurality of still images are displayed like a motion picture, imaging of an object using facilities corresponding to the above-mentioned specific equipment such as the rails, the camera stage and the specific camera therefor is prerequisite.
On the other hand, recently, use of digital still cameras and digital video camcorders is pervading widely. Along with this pervasion of these devices, circumstances and conditions have matured for allowing motion images of an object to be inputted into a computer as image data after having been pictured, and to be processed by an image processing.
Not limiting to the image capturing by use of the above-mentioned digital still camera, digital video camcorder or the like, various imaging methods are used for capturing motion images such as the use of a translation motion of a camera moving horizontally relative to an object, circling around the object, and performing a frame-work or camera-work in accordance with a time-variable zooming or a moving object, in order to provide visual impressions of a perspective sense, depth sense or stereoscopic sense to the object and its background images.
In such imaging methods described above, for example, as a basic camera work, there are a panning method in which the camera is panned(rotated) horizontally while fixing its camera position; a tilting method in which the camera is tilted vertically while fixing its camera position; a tracking method in which the camera position is translated in parallel horizontally or vertically; a crane method in which the camera position is moved upward or downward; a dolly or track-up/track-back method in which the object is imaged in a larger or smaller size by moving the camera position back and forth; a zooming method in which the object is pictured by zooming in or zooming out the lens; a tumble method in which the camera position and its direction are moved around the object with a point-of-regard fixed thereon; and the like.
As a typical example of shooting methods of motion images, there is a so-called bullet-time photography or machine-gun photography used in the movie “The Matrix” from the Warner Brothers, started in March 1999 in USA, also in Japan in September 1999 supplied from the Time Warner Entertainment Japan. According to these methods, still cameras in the number of several tens to several hundreds that can be remotely controlled are placed around acting persons to be pictured. Then, while the persons as the object are acting, shutters of these plural numbers of still cameras are operated with a slight time lag therebetween. By use of these pictures imaged as above, changes in the viewing point relative to the object and motion of the acting persons are interlocked, thereby enabling to obtain a motion image that is reproduced like a slow motion image.
In a so-called virtual stereoscopic technology for use of motion images, wherein a processing for enhancing the stereographic visual sense in the motion image obtained by the above-mentioned imaging method is applied by using a picture image processing, computer graphic processing or the like, thereby enabling to display a result of the processing as its motion image, several research and developments have been conducted. Such pseudo stereoscopic technologies for use of motion images are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 1980-36240 “Stereoscopic image display apparatus”, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 1996-59119 “Virtual stereoscopic image display apparatus”, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 1996-37303 “Coded image processing method, coded image processing apparatus, and coded image processing circuit”, etc.